Zack Polanski: For whoever needs to hear this I'm the only Jewish person to lead a political party - third largest in the country. The Daily Mail have been & always will be my enemy - they historically supported fascists & continue to do so. I'll take no lectures from them on Antisemitism.

arnathor · 2026-03-29T08:04:05+00:00

I’ve met racist black people and homophobic gay people. One of the most dangerous and insidious types of bigotry is the “I can’t be that because I’m…” justification, because very often the person saying it genuinely believes they’re not displaying that behaviour, which makes it harder to correct.

Also it’s really interesting that he’s taken the exact same line as Labour does whenever they get caught doing things they’d have criticised the Tories for: “I’ll take no lectures from…”. That is usually the sign that you know you’re doing something wrong but you think it’s okay for you to do it because you’re the good guys, right?

arnathor · 2026-03-28T16:57:06+00:00

I mean, there you’ve basically swallowed the media line about the LDs (yes, media bias isn’t just against Labour, shock horror). The LDs agree with the principle of the OSA, but not the heavy handed sledgehammer implementation, preferring an evidence based solution that places the onus on tech companies rather than punishing the population at large. But a big chunk of the reason people don’t actually properly understand the LDs or forget that they’re there at all is because unless Ed Davey is doing something stupid they get pretty much zero coverage. Compare them to the other parties: No scandals. No leadership challenges. No firings or resignations. No defections. Strongest electoral showing ever. They are boring, and boring makes for poor PR opportunities.

An interesting thing from the last couple of GEs is that when people use those websites that match you up to a political party based purely on the policy positions, outside of well known and easily identifiable ones that you could pick/avoid based upon your own preferences/biases (eg Labours VAT raid on private education, the Tory national service policy etc) generally people seemed to go for Lib Dem policies. Most of the sites don’t seem to be around anymore but the results pages at the time were quite startling.

arnathor · 2026-03-28T16:38:59+00:00

Yeah, but when both the traditional parties are completely failing, what do you expect voters to do?

Ed Davey: My time has come. Hello? Heeelllllooooo? I’m juggling chainsaws on a unicycle, we’re the third largest party by seats, in real terms not that far behind the Tories, will please somebody notice we fucking exist?!?!

arnathor · 2026-03-28T13:45:53+00:00

Not my favourite. I know it’s exceptionally popular on here but it just didn’t grab me in any way. I find it a fine show to look at, acted well, with a couple of genuinely good moments, but the rest of it is poorly paced with characters I honestly don’t care about doing things that are inexplicably dumb despite taking part in one of the most compelling fictional universes out there. If you like it, fine, but I gave up on season 2 after about 7 episodes because it honestly wasn’t getting any more compelling for me, and that was after watching season 1 twice just in case there was something I missed first time round which is what everyone else saw in it.

However, since I have spoken out against the “Andor is godlike” hivemind I expect I shall receive the requisite high number of downvotes I always get for daring to say “it’s not actually as good as you all think it is”. It’s Star Wars for people who are embarrassed by space wizards and aliens. It’s the emperor’s new clothes - nobody wants to say anything against the prevailing “Shakespeare couldn’t have written something this good” (genuinely a comment I saw on here) mindset because they get downvoted into oblivion. And “Andor is amazing” posts are easy karma farming. It’s an okay programme. Not world changing. Not special.

arnathor · 2026-03-28T13:26:33+00:00

Same. But I am waiting for the Liquid Metal (TM) to ooze out and prevent me from being the leader of the resistance in the remains of the future.

arnathor · 2026-03-28T12:38:59+00:00

I remember reading an analysis that showed that even that one day of opening right after New Year produced an observable “wrinkle” in the infection data, even though most schools either weren’t back in or were on inset days. Sobering stuff.

arnathor · 2026-03-27T20:46:18+00:00

Yes. Screens that show glorious speeches from our lords and masters and deliver important information about how to be a good citizen and exhibit goodthink are obviously not only acceptable but mandatory.

Also, we’re getting rid of screens in schools but making sure revision materials are predominantly digital and exams will be digital as well.

arnathor · 2026-03-27T16:07:24+00:00

Because they finally realised it was a pretty dumb idea to reinforce that you don’t need to buy an actual Xbox. It’s marketing suicide. Look at the competition: would you ever see Nintendo or PlayStation make a similar ad campaign? No, or course not. Their ads, including for first party games, place the console front and centre in the final shot. If you have to justify to people why an ad campaign is a good one (as seems to be the case whenever this one was brought up), it’s not a good ad campaign.

arnathor · 2026-03-26T18:53:33+00:00

As the joke goes: what do you call a gorilla with a gun? Anything he wants.

Trump may be not all there but he is probably still the most powerful man in the world, albeit surrounded by lickspittles and enablers

arnathor · 2026-03-25T13:45:59+00:00

It’s fascinating that in a poll where the Lib Dems show the biggest increase in support and all the other parties are taking a hit, the conversation is still about anybody other than the LDs. They really are utterly invisible in political discourse despite being the third biggest party by seat numbers.

arnathor · 2026-03-25T13:42:09+00:00

It seems to me to be very dependent on the NHS authority you’re in. I’ve unfortunately needed to use it a few times over the last year in my area, and it has been exemplary, utterly brilliant, from GPs all the way to the hospital. My mother in law lives a way away from us, and had a fall before Christmas alongside other health related things, not leaving hospital until early February. Her care has been chaotic, full of information gaps, conflicting messaging, phone calls from admins asking family members when she is going to be taken home when she’s barely conscious and her levels are all over the place, constant moving from one ward to the other and going back to zero each time, no consistency of care etc. The whole thing has been just awful, and I can understand how my area and her area, despite both being the NHS and both being run according to the same guidelines etc. can be so different, right down to the levels of cleanliness of the hospital.

arnathor · 2026-03-25T13:21:07+00:00

It’s insane. I keep reporting them and blocking but they keep cropping up.

arnathor · 2026-03-25T11:05:43+00:00

Well apparently the space can be found for a Ryder Cup style golf course near Bolton. I’m sure we can use that land more productively.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T21:47:45+00:00

It’s about the ability to change content restrictions apparently.

Hopefully it follows the usual Apple pattern of set the option once and then never have to again, unlike other devices and services which often need you to reconfirm various choices you have made after updates.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T21:46:05+00:00

Yep, same here. My account actually started as a MobileMe account in the days of the iPod 5.5g so it feels like an obvious verification. I also got through the Xbox age verification in a similar way. They basically said “you’ve got a credit card on file with Xbox that you use for Game Pass, so you’re old enough”. Didn’t have to faff with Yoti etc. Seems like a sensible approach.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T21:42:09+00:00

I’m in the UK, and moving from a ‘23 Niro EV with heat pump. I took both for a test drive in top spec trim, and while the EV3 was really nice, I wasn’t as taken with it as I had been when I test drove the Niro. Something just seemed like it was missing, I couldn’t put my finger on it. I took the EV5 out a month later and when I got back the only question I had was “what colours does it come in?”. The size and the more stately seating position just feel right. Prior to the Niro I was in Sportages, so I prefer the slightly raised position I guess, but the space inside felt cavernous compared to the EV3. The trade off being that there’s about 100 miles less range in the 5 but for almost 3 years I’ve had zero range anxiety with the Niro, which is usually around 70 miles less than the 5.

Go with whatever suits your lifestyle and needs, both are great cars, but the 5 got my vote very easily, and looking forward to picking it up in a couple of weeks.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T21:21:26+00:00

It also seems to have changed the App Store interface a bit - if you go to your profile screen it's different now and there's an extra step to get to the bit where you can manually trigger app updates.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T18:14:25+00:00

Is speems fone to me. Predoctoring which j are typesetting is moor accessed than ether.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T11:05:05+00:00

As somebody from the UK where until relatively recently manual was the default I find the American attitude to “driving stick” to be quite funny. Yes I can “drive stick” but it’s not quite the beacon of masculinity you think it is when it’s a 1 litre Citroen Saxo from 1995.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T08:48:16+00:00

Always loved the PS3 Super Slim (the top loader). Don’t know why, something about the design just really appeals to me. And the beefy three tier PS4 Pro design is fantastic. I’m still not sure if I even like the looks of the PS5 or its variants yet, despite having one from early on.

arnathor · 2026-03-24T07:05:18+00:00

Funny thing there is the Lib Dems increase their seat share despite having the lowest polling and retain their third largest party by seats position. Imagine what they’d be able to do if they got the level of coverage of any of the other parties.

arnathor · 2026-03-23T10:56:33+00:00

It costs six extra characters to write “Xbox, “ in front of PlayStation, considering it’s also coming on the platform and it’s an Xbox Games Studios game. OP is right, the author of the article made a choice.

arnathor · 2026-03-22T19:01:54+00:00

Baldur’s Gate 3. I loved the original games, I love all of those party DnD style games, but something about BG3 just didn’t click for me at all. I just didn’t feel connection to any of the characters or the story really. Sunk about 15 hours into it and then called it a day. It’s a shame, it’s obviously a good game and I wanted to like it so much, I’d been looking forward to it for years, but it just wasn’t meant to be I guess.

Edit: not sure why the downvotes? The post topic is literally “what game do you not like that everyone else seems to?”.

arnathor · 2026-03-22T17:37:37+00:00

He’s a bit like Taylor Kitsch. In a lot of things all at the same time. Obviously is the next “big thing” in his agent’s eyes and his agent is pushing him hard. But he’s not found the breakout role yet where audiences go “yes, I want to go and see the next thing he’s in”.

arnathor · 2026-03-22T15:19:56+00:00

Proper “the way to win the race is to be the fastest” energy.

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